Vote: Cast Informed Votes this Year… your future depends on it!

Vote: Cast Informed Votes this Year… your future depends on it!: Join us today as we talk about the importance of the upcoming elections. The opposition is showing up in higher numbers – conservative victories are at stake! We’re talking about Christians being salt and light in the culture and giving you a great tool to help you be an informed voter! Tune in now to learn more!

Transcription note: As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live! We’re talking about today’s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture. And, of course, the culture includes government, and politics. We’ve got an election coming up, so today’s program is specifically about how to choose those leaders.

By the way, check out WallBuildersLive.com is our main website where you can learn more about us as hosts. Which includes David Barton, America’s premier historian. And Tim Barton, a national speaker and pastor, and president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator.

So, visit WallBuildersLive.com to learn more. Get a list of our stations across the country and also get into the archives and you can listen to some past programs as well. But then go to WallBuilders.com where we’ve got a lot of great tools for you to be a good citizen, to learn about the Constitution, to learn about influencing the culture around you. All of that available at WallBuilders.com.

Today we’re going to be sending you the iVoterGuide.com. We’re going to have a guest later in the program to explain what that is and how to use it. David, Tim, even the idea of voting sometimes is a foreign concept to people in the church. They say, “Oh, I was always told to stay away from politics and government, so I’ve never voted.” How important is it that we challenge our listeners to make sure that they’re letting their voice be heard and their values counted in this November election?

Tim:

Well, Rick, one of the things that as spiritually we look at culture Jesus said that we are the light of the world. And one of the interesting contrasts with light and darkness is that darkness is not a substance – it is the absence of a substance. Darkness is the absence of light. So often Christians look a culture and we can we can recognize, it’s pretty easy to see, culture is moving in a very dark direction. But this is not just a substance that culture is embracing, it’s a reflection of the absence and what they are missing.

The Absence of Light

Tim:

And they are missing the values of Christianity because for too long Christians have been absent from promoting these values and culture. When you look at the educational system and what kids are learning in public school and many of these programs. Whether it be in science class, or sex ed class, or right, you can kind of pick some of these classes where they’re being inundated. Even literature – some of the things they’re reading and the values they’re learning in literature class. There are so many negative things that we see happening in culture around us.

But the reason these things happen it’s a lack of involvement from Christians because we’ve not been salt and light in the community. And one of the areas where we see we’ve not done a good job is really when it comes down to electing and choosing out leaders to represent us who would uphold the values that we care about. The things that would best represent what is beneficial for families, what is beneficial for students. And we’ve removed those values from culture. So, we’re seeing culture in trouble, but it’s because Christians have not been involved in a lot of the process.

Rick:

Think about that salt. That is literally– it’s not just preserving the culture, it’s bringing out the best in the culture. That’s what it does – it brings out the flavor in the meat that’s what that salt is supposed to do. And if we’re not doing that– when we did do it, let’s look at it that way first, when we did do it, when Christians were involved to the extent that the culture, it permeated the culture, you saw it everywhere and Christian principles were represented in every area of the culture. Wow. We saw the best of society, we saw the greatest nation in the world was developed.

But when we step back and we hi– not hide, but keep ourselves in our homes, and our churches, and not influencing what’s happening outside of those realms. Wow, man, not only is there no flavor, but you get the worst of the nature of man comes out.

You Get the Worst of the Nature of Man

David:

Well, you get the worst of the nature man. And one of the things that we see right now is the huge polarization going on in the nation where it’s name calling back and forth, and people are labeling, and “We do that”, and “Well, they’re this or that”. But we don’t like being labeled. If somebody starts call us names you say, “Well, I’m not really that.” And one of the things that happens once you get involved in trying to vote you will receive some type of a label.

And I will say that for most Christians who believe in Christian, Biblical, values you will be labeled conservative. You may say, “I’m not conservative, I’m just reasonable, I’m not–” If you hold to positions that there is actually absolute rights and wrongs and morals. That some things are morally right or wrong. If you hold the position that, look, government shouldn’t be our God, it shouldn’t be telling us everything to do, we should have a limited government. If you hold the position that, hey, we think unborn life should be protected, not slaughtered, you’re going to be labeled a conservative. That’s just the way it is.

And from a political standpoint in an off year election– what we call an off year election is a non-presidential election. So, this election right now coming up in a matter of weeks. This is an off year election – this is generally when people who were called conservatives, those of traditional values who support the Constitution and biblical principles, that’s when they usually make really good progress. This is when you see a lot of pickups in state legislators, and you get governors, and you get a lot of good progress on those values.

But this year is very different. The other side that is what we would call the secular left, those that are opposed to these values, those who prefer socialism to free market systems, etc.. Right now in the elections we have had up to this point special elections etc. They are over performing their normal turnout by an additional 39 percent. Now, when the other side shows up with an additional 39 percent what is usually a victory year for those of traditional beliefs and values will no longer be a victory year unless they show up themselves to kind of counteract that balance.

Victory Year at Stake!

David:

At this point those of traditional values have shown up at about a 25 percent higher rate, which is very good, but that’s not 39 percent higher and that’s where the other side is. So, Christians are the ones who can make up the difference and who will be the key in this election to a number of things sort of going on. What’s happening in the U.S. Senate, whether we will hold the Senate and continue to get original intent constitutional judges on there who actually do believe there are moral rights and wrongs. We’ve been getting great judges on the court. Whether that happens or not, continues to happen, is going to be up to Christians, quite frankly.

And the statistics are that in an election like this, generally, about half of Christians are registered to vote and out of that you get about 60 percent who actually do vote. So, you’re usually looking at about only one out of three Christians vote this year in this election. If Christians would simply go out– and a lot of– I’ll just point out a lot of people say, “Well, I don’t know who to vote for and who’s running.” That’s why we’ve got this program today.

iVoterGuide will tell you who’s running, what they believe, what their beliefs are, give you the information you need to be able to make a difference. And if we get Christians to turn out in higher numbers with that information we can do something really, really, good this year.

Rick:

Debbie Wuthnow is the executive director of iVoterGuide and she’s going to be on to tell us how to use it and how to access it, which states it’s in, which is all of them, how you can be a part of actually taking this information and not only getting educated yourself, but sharing it with others as well. Stay with us. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

This Precarious Moment Book

David:

This is David Barton. I want to let about a brand new book we have called This Precarious Moment, Six Urgent Steps That Will Save You, Your family, and Our Country. Jim Garlow and I have co-authored this book and we take six issues that are hot in the culture right now.

Issues that we’re dealing with, issues such as immigration, race relations, our relationship with Israel, the rising generation Millennials, and the absence of the church in the culture wars, and where American heritage is, our godly heritage. We look at all six of those issues right now that are under attack and we give you both Biblical and historical perspective on those issues that provide solutions on what each of us can do right now to make a difference.

These are all problems that are solvable if we’ll get involved. So you can grab the book This Precarious Moment and find out what you can do to make a difference. This Precarious Moment is available at WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back! Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Our guest today, Debbie Wuthnow, is from iVoterGuide.com. Which, you’ve got to go to that website today – iVoterGuide.com. You need to share it on Facebook, share it on Twitter, get it in the hands of people all over the country so they can get educated before they go vote this year. Debbie, thanks for coming on.

Debbie Wuthnow:

Oh, thanks for having me.

Rick:

Hey, thanks for what you guys do. I think that’s one of our most often questions is, “How do I know who to vote for? I don’t know anything about the candidates.” And what you are literally doing is equipping people with the information that they need so they can cast an informed vote.

What’s the breadth of the website. In other words, we have listeners all over the country. So, who does this actually give access to. Your map, I think, covers the whole country.

Debbie Wuthnow:

We do – we cover every federal in every state. We cover the Senate races in all 50 states when they’re on the ballot, we cover all the congressional races. So, all your federal races you can come to iVoterGuide to see the factual information about those candidates and also an evaluation which is a really good picture of how they might vote once they’re in office. And then there are seven states where we cover all of the statewide races and the state legislative races.

So, we’re going to cover anywhere from one or two races on your ballot up to 18 races on your ballot in Texas and 11 races in in Ohio. In Pennsylvania we’ve got six races we’re covering – it ranges. But in any state you can certainly get some information.

Rick:

And what type– if a voter, in fact, sometimes we have listeners who have never voted. They’re saying, “Okay, I’m willing to go this time. What am I looking for?” When they get that voter guide, what should they be looking for?

Debbie Wuthnow:

Well, what you’re going to look for is– and I come at this as as a voter myself. I was one of those Christians who didn’t go to the polls, certainly in the primaries, because I didn’t know who to vote for. So, what we’re going to give you is a way to see what’s important to the– or what the values of that candidate for elected office, what are those values, what’s he going to– what does he stand behind, how liberal or conservative he is. And we do that by looking at not just what they say, but we get the data and do the research on what they’ve done.

Evaluating Candidates

Debbie Wuthnow:

So, we look at who they’ve given money to, their donation records, who have they received money from. Because you can tell a lot about a candidate based on who they support. Is that Planned Parenthood, is that National Right to Life, things like that.

Rick:

That’s a big deal.

Debbie Wuthnow:

And then we look at their scorecards if they’ve ever held office before. And a large percentage of those candidates for federal office held office at the state legislative. We gathered the data when they were a state legislator on how did they vote? How were they rated on fiscal issues, and social issues that are important to all of us. And then we had available to them for the federal races. Then we also gather their endorsements.

We let them answer an issue survey that covers a really broad spectrum of issues fiscal social issues – life, Israel, parents responsibility, marriage, bathrooms, what are your spiritual beliefs? And then we have volunteer panelists who look at all that data and evaluate to actually assign a rating from very liberal to very conservative. It’s a seven point scale to just see where on the spectrum we project that this candidate will vote once they’re in office.

Rick:

That’s so good. It is so much more than, what I understand, it’s so much more than just, “Okay, they voted this way on this one issue one time.” You guys are really diving deep and I love the fact that you mention it even factors in who have they donated money to, who’s donating money to them. Those things really sometimes tell you what the voting record doesn’t tell you. Because our elected officials, they’ve gotten pretty good at hiding that or getting the votes. The voting record did not always reflect what they’ve really been doing behind the scenes. So, you’re giving us a broader picture.

Debbie Wuthnow:

Well, and candidates are good at campaigning, so they know what you want to hear.

Rick:

Right.

Don’t Vote On Emotion

Debbie Wuthnow:

But we really shine the light in the darkness and try to reveal what they’ve done when they’re in office. And in some ways, a lot of Americans, we vote on emotion, “Oh that guy seems so nice. Look, he’s a family guy.” But let’s look at what they’ve stood behind, what are the what are their values, what are they going to vote for.

Rick:

Yes, it’s so good. In fact, I love– I’m on the website right now and just scrolling through, part of what I love about it, I’m visual, I need to see colors, I need to see graphs. If it’s just straight black and white data and it’s all tiny print, I get lost. You guys have done a great job of designing the website where, boom, I pull that up and I can instantly tell with the way you’ve done with this with the colors, and the very conservative, all the way down to very liberal, and a whole lot of opportunities in between – conservative, somewhat conservative, moderate, *.

So, you’ve got your graph, or I can see that, but if I want to go deeper I can.

Debbie Wuthnow:

You can, yes.

Rick:

So, I can click on and research and–

Debbie Wuthnow:

As little or as much information as you want. There’s that “show details” button and you can just keep going deeper to see those vote ratings. So, the first chart shows you how many endorsements they received and then you can go see who those endorsers are. You can see the average of their vote ratings and then click “show details” to see each individual vote rating. And then that virtual vote rating, that pie chart, I mean that score, you can dive really deep in seeing the actual legislators that a candidate is given money to. The virtual vote rating is something only iVoterGuide can do because we see donation information and we have those scorecards.

A Good Data-Based Predictor

Debbie Wuthnow:

So, what we do is we look at when a candidate has given money to a legislator and then we link it to that legislators voting record based on the projection that they’re going to give money to people who they share values with. So, especially for candidates who’ve never held office before, that’s a good data-based predictor of what their values are.

Rick:

Right. Okay, so it’s so good, it’s so easy. Now online, I’m looking at all this and then you have, if I want to print that out and take it into the booth with me because I may not be able to remember all these different people on the ballot, can I do that? So–

Debbie Wuthnow:

Yes you can. There is a button at the top of the site that says print my voter guide.

Rick:

There it is.

Debbie Wuthnow:

One thing to know is that iVoterGuide is personalized for you. So, when you go to the website you enter zip code, or if you want to be very specific you can enter your voting address, and then you will just– we’ll just show you the races that will be on your ballot. You can compare those candidates and then click that “Print My Voter Guide” and that’ll print the candidates that you’ve chosen that you’re going to cast your ballot for. Take that into the ballot box so you can cast your vote.

And in fact, in some states, I don’t know if this but they’ve got mail in ballots and people need to wait until iVoterGuide is out there in their states before they go and cast their ballot.

Rick:

Make sure you cast an informed vote. Don’t just go in there–

Debbie Wuthnow:

Yes.

We Vote Based On the Silliest Things

Rick:

–and vote for the name you recognize, or the, “Oh, they had great signs.”

Debbie Wuthnow:

Signs in the yard.

Rick:

Yeah, yeah. Or their family picture was so nice and they looked so sweet. We do – we vote on the silliest things.

Debbie Wuthnow:

I know. He’s got seven kids he’s got to be good.

Rick:

Right. Right. So, this is a chance to really dig deep, find out what they’re really all about. And then last thing is – what about sharing this with others. So this helps me get informed, obviously, as a voter as we’ve already talked about. I can print it out, I can take it into vote. What about if I want to share this with folks at my church or my family? Can I take that and post it on Facebook? Or can I share with others? What’s the best way for me to spread the word?

Debbie Wuthnow:

Well, there’s multiple ways. And you shared earlier – go and check us out on Facebook. So, go like our Facebook page and share those posts with your social media network. You can sign up for our e-mail list by going to iVoterGuide.com and joining us or entering your e-mail. We’ll send you e-mails when it’s time to vote in your state. And because we are in all 50 states, forward any of those e-mails to your family, your friends, that live across the nation so that they’re aware of voter guide. And, yes, those are the two big I can think about – social media and e-mails.

We actually have a flyer on our website that’s a church bulletin. So, if you click on “Get Involved” we’ve got resources for churches and there’s a bulletin insert that you can print it yourself and hand it out. It doesn’t give individual ballots, but it tells people about iVoterGuide. Because we personalize it each person would go and just see the races on their ballot and they can pass it out at church.

Get Your Specific Voter Guide!

Rick:

Because if you go to a church where people in that church are from different state legislative districts around that city then you’d want them to be able to plug in and get their specific voter guide.

Debbie Wuthnow:

Exactly.

Rick:

Okay, alright. So, but the bulletin can be put into the– or the flyer can be put into the bulletin. Absolutely. And this is an important thing to emphasize with folks – absolutely legal, perfectly fine, not a violation of any made up separation of church and state or any ruling out there. This is something that churches are allowed to do, and frankly, should do.

Debbie Wuthnow:

Yes.

Rick:

Most people want to be informed in that church and they’re looking for guidance. And here we have a fantastic way to get that guidance.

Debbie Wuthnow:

Well, on that same page on our website is a flyer you can download that was prepared for us by First Liberty that says what churches can and can’t do. And distributing this voter guide is something they can do. So, if you need a little bit more ammunition when you go to your pastor those resources are on our “Get Involved” page as well.

Rick:

This is so good. I’m looking on that “Equipping Your Church” page you’ve got the “Help Your Church Know Their Rights” – that one’s the one from First Liberty. You’ve got “Share With Your Church”, so the bulletin insert. “Announce Prior to a Church Service” – you’ve got slide’s for a PowerPoint where you can give a little mini presentation if you want.

Do You Want to Be a Good Citizen?

Debbie Wuthnow:

Yeah.

Rick:

And “Is it Legal for a Church to Link to iVoterGuide?.” Of course it is, but it gives the explanation. So, Debbie, you just– fantastic. Really well done. Thank you all for what you’re doing. Thank you for equipping us. We want to be good citizens. I think everybody out there would would raise their hand if you said, “Do you want to honor the veterans that served, and died, and protected, your freedom? Do you want to obey the biblical command to do well with the talents that you’ve been given?” And freedom is one of those. So, we would all raise our hand. But then we would go, “But I’m not sure how to do that or what to do.” You guys are given us the how and it really is a blessing.

Debbie Wuthnow:

Well, we’re just doing our part in the body of Christ. We do what we are called to do and as we all work together we’re more powerful. So, thank you for working with us and helping us get the word out to conservative Christians.

Rick:

Quick an easy way to get there – iVoterGuide.com, iVoterGuide.com. We’ll have easy links today at WallBuildersLive.com for you as well. And again, all of our listeners all over the country, wherever you are, go click on your state and it’s going to have some information for you.

Debbie, keep up the great work. Look forward to having you back again soon.

Debbie Wuthnow:

Thanks, Rick. Thanks so much.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Join Us In Israel!

Hey guys what are you doing January 28th through February 7th? If you said you don’t know, let me give you an idea. We are going to Israel. Rick Green, my dad, David Barton, Tim Barton, our families are going and we would love for you to go with us. We are going to the Holy Land if you’ve ever been to Israel this is something as a Christian that will make you forever read your bible differently.

To see where Jesus walked, where He lived, where He did miracles, where so much of the Bible took place. If you’ve ever read through the Bible and you’ve given it a mental picture, the mental picture will not do justice of what happens when you’re actually on the ground. If you’ve ever thought about the story of David and Goliath and you’ve envisioned what it looks like, we’re going to go to the actual field where it took place.

There are so many things that you will see that literally makes the Bible come to life. In fact, that’s the name of the tour group we’re going with is The Bible Comes to Life. Go to CMJacksboro.com. You can click on the link, it has an Israel itinerary, all kinds of details. Hope to see you on this trip this coming year.

Rick:

Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks to Debbie for joining us today and telling us about iVoterGuide. I encourage you to visit that today – iVoterGuide.com. And use all of those tools – not just the ones about finding out about the candidates – use the tools about how to get this information out at your church.

Back with David and Tim. David, you were talking earlier about really the difference maker in the elections which will determine all of those Good News Friday’s we’ve had all year this year, all the great things that have been happening in stopping the slide toward socialism, and so many different things we could talk about. But all of that happens when you elect people that are going to push those agendas and they’re going to have the moral clarity to do things like stand up for Israel, and stop giving money to terrorist states, and all those things, that only happens when people show up to vote and vote their values. So, Christians showing up to vote this year – right now – early voting is starting all across the country – is vitally important.

Why Now?

David:

Yeah, and that’s why we’re doing this program right now. People say, “Wait, the election’s not till November the 6th.” No, actually, in states like Maine the elections elections already been going for several weeks. And in many states it is this week that early voting starts 20 days out from election, and 24 days out, or 31 days out. So, in a large part of the country right now voting is going on for the 2018 election where we’re choosing our governors, our senators, our U.S. congressmen, our state reps, our city council, that’s going right now.

That’s why we’re doing this program right now because it gives you opportunity not only for you to vote, and to vote informed– and by the way, I’ve got to say I love what they do because long ago Jesus told us that where your money is there’s your heart also. So, looking at who these candidates are giving to tells you where their heart is. “Oh, I’m pro-life.” Well, then why are you giving money to Planned Parenthood?

So, this is a really good way of knowing what they actually believe and then of who gives money to them. Right to life groups aren’t going to be given money to candidates who are pro abortion. So, if Planned Parenthood is giving money to these candidates, I don’t care what they say, Planned Parenthood knows these guys are the wrong side. Or whatever the issue is – whether it’s Israel getting money from anti Israel groups.

So, and the third thing I like is not only that they look at where these candidates give money, and where money is given to these candidates, but they also look at the voting record and that’s so important. If you already have a record, if these folks have been in office, it doesn’t matter what their website says they believe they have a voting record that tells you. So, this is really good for people of faith to be able to know exactly what truth is and be able to vote accordingly.

So, voting is going on right now in so many states. And this is an excellent tool to help you know who to choose.

Don’t Be a Blanket Supporter

Tim:

And as was mentioned in the interview, right. It’s not exclusive on down ballot things for all local and for all the people in your state. So, maybe you’re in one of the states that it has great information for, but maybe it only has the people running for federal, so your congressmen and your senators. And so maybe this is not going to be this kind of exhaustive list for you, but it’s at least somewhere you can go to get information on some of the people that are running.

And certainly, there’s lots of other websites. In fact, at WallBuilders we will have links to some other websites where you can go to WallBuilders.com and you can click on some of those other websites, Christian Voter Guide and–

David:

Yeah, ChristianVoterGuide.com is a website where we link to a lot of other websites who put out voting guides for down ballot races.

Tim:

Right. So, Christian Voter Guide is the place where we don’t just say, “Here’s who’s running.” We actually have links to a lot of the places, hopefully some from your state, that will have some of your local races and let you know exactly who’s running, and where they stand, what their position is, what they believe.

Because one of the things we’ve talked about on the program before – it’s not so significant and important that you support a party as it is that you uphold principles. One of the things that’s really kind of a shame in our country is many people are more dedicated to a party than they are to their principles. They’ll go to the ballot and they will vote a straight ticket for Republicans, for Democrats, for independents, for moderates, for whoever it is, libertarians, the Green Party, Constitution. No – we should not just be blanket supporters of an organization or a political party.

We need to know what principles are important to us. And why voter guides are so helpful is when we know what principles are important to us we can find the people that support those principles the best. So, I’m not looking for necessarily the best Republican candidate, the best conservative candidate, the best Democratic candidate. What I’m looking for are the candidates who will do the best job defending the unborn, who will do the best job protecting religious liberty, who will be the best friends of Israel.

We have issues that we care about and we want to find the people that do the best on those issues. And again, this is why voters guides are so helpful when it comes to elections.

Cast Informed Votes this Year… your future depends on it!

Rick:

I always think of voting as the parable the talents. We’ve been given this gift, this talent of freedom, and the ability to actually choose our leaders. Most people that ever lived on the planet did not have that right. And here we are, we get to choose our government, we get to choose our leaders and the kind of policies that are going to be reflected, we get to choose what kind of society our kids are gonna grow up in. Wow. He’s given us that talent. I sure don’t want to be told I’m a wicked and slothful servant because I buried that talent because I didn’t use it, because I didn’t show up to vote because it wasn’t convenient, or whatever.

And it is so convenient today. Nobody’s shooting at you when you stand in line. There’s nobody preventing you from going to vote. We’ve got it’s so easy and so good. Folks, please use this right. Make sure that you’re showing up. Make sure that you’re showing up and casting an informed vote. Go to these voter guides and make sure you know who you’re voting for, and what you’re voting for, and be a positive influence on your government, and your community, and frankly, the next generation. Because the leaders we put in today are going to determine what our children and our grandchildren grow up in in this nation.

Thanks so much for listening. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.

WALLBUILDERS LIVE! with David Barton, Tim Barton and Rick Green is a daily journey into the past to capture the ideas of the Founding Fathers of America and then apply them to the major issues of today. Featured guests will include Congressmen, Senators, and other elected officials, as well as experts, activists, authors, and commentators on a variety of issues facing America.